


Backlit

by daughterofalderaan



Category: Ted Lasso (TV)
Genre: F/M, New Year's Eve, Some angst, post-Season 1, some merriment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-16
Updated: 2021-01-16
Packaged: 2021-03-13 19:15:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,514
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28783272
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daughterofalderaan/pseuds/daughterofalderaan
Summary: By the stroke of a watch hand, December morphed into January. Rebecca was outside and coatless—yet warmed. Metaphorically speaking.
Relationships: Ted Lasso/Rebecca Welton
Comments: 12
Kudos: 43





	Backlit

It was December 31st. This year, the events team outdid themselves by staging a bash at the Greyhounds' training complex. Internally at AFC Richmond, the space was referred to as "The Ballroom." In reality, it was just a big box of a barren room with concrete flooring and stale-colored walls. When it was dressed up, however, the space transformed. Buffet tables outlined the room's perimeter, and a posh variety of tinsel and streamers (make it make sense) filled up the room. 

Rebecca wore a pink-tinged long-sleeved dress with sequins that lined the hem, paired with sky-high heels. She looked good—or so Keeley told her. Keeley was doing a gig out in Greece and had asked her to text over a _Fit Pic_ (hang on, was that a double entendre?).

Practically everyone of importance in AFC Richmond sphere's was in attendance. VIPS were getting sloshed. Partners were getting acquainted with staff members they'd only ever corresponded with via email. The team was moshing to tunes that were objectively un-moshable.

For Rebecca, this was a key work function; a professional socialization marathon. She tracked down necessary targets and, in turn, was pulled into conversations. There was an ebb and flow to it that she was riding smoothly. There was fun to be had in figuring out in real-time precisely what the people she spoke to needed to hear from her.

One guest, of extraordinary wealth, who old-fashioned enough to keep a checkbook in their pocket, took out their pen, scribbled their name, and handed the slip over to her on the spot. There was the odd _Remember me?_ brand of prick she had to oblige, but most people she chatted with were pleasant. The night had an enjoyable edge to it, actually.

Until Rupert. 

After topping up her drink, Rebecca spotted him when she rejoined the crowd. He was encircled by a flock of men who were chuckling at something he said and looking at him like he was a promised messiah. He stood there, firm, hand pressed against the back of his trophy wife—lower than that, actually. She wondered if she had looked like that when she was his shiny new thing. Accessorized. Possessed. Was there anyone back then who could see what she saw now?

She tried maneuvering through the crowd to find someone actually worthwhile to speak to, but Rupert noticed her and called her by name. Before she turned, she put on a well-practiced relaxed smile. 

It was effortless for him: humiliating her in front of others. He was like an orchestra conductor, coordinating how the strings were plucked—making her sound uptight, defensive. He and her were in a bubble where they were the only ones who knew what he was doing.

Face flushed, Rebecca tore herself away from the group, trying not to seem like she was fleeing. She forced her fingers to splay out so they wouldn't curl into fists. 

Rebecca figured that if she spoke to anyone else at the moment, she'd snap at them so monumentally it would end up in tomorrow's _Guardian_. She deposited her glass on an available surface and squeezed behind a step and repeat banner at the far end of the room. Her hands shoved the door's push bar with enough force that it slammed into the wall.

She stalked past the threshold into the empty corridor as the voices and sounds stemming from the ballroom echoed disconcertingly. A few meters down, she reached a staircase. Metal clanged as she ascended it. She directed her full balance onto the balls of her feet so that her heels wouldn't get caught in the steps' gaps.

Reaching the top, she found that the door was cracked open. She pushed it further, stepped out into the night air, and—

"Oh," she said in surprise.

Ted was there, because of course he was.

His mobile was in his hand, and his arm was stuck out in front of his face; he was clearly video chatting with someone. He moved his arm a bit to see who joined him. 

Rebecca made a move to pivot away and leave him to it, but he mouthed a "No, you're good," giving her permission to stay. 

She stayed put because, by that point, it would've been odder to leave than to stay.

He was turned up a notch, speaking in an especially animated an excited voice. "Five, four, three, two, whoo! Oh, I came in too early? Nah, you were too slow! Alright, she says supper's ready? You'd better do as she says, then. Tell your Granny Helga I send my love. Right. I love you too, buddy." 

The device beeped twice, indicating the end of the call. He pocketed it and walked over to where Rebecca was standing.

Ted explained without needing prompting, saying, "Time zones," on an exhale. "I'm most certainly not gonna be awake at six a.m. to ring in the new year with Henry—well, not unless something crazy goes down—so we did it on our own terms. Time is all relative, right?"

She nodded.

He then addressed what he must've seen written on her face ever since she first stepped out here. "You okay, there?" he asked.

It was nearly annoying. If just about anyone else was standing there opposite her, she wouldn't have let her feelings leak into her expression. With him, however, she left out threads for him to pull.

Still, she downplayed things. "I'm—well, it's nothing. I just needed some air." 

Respecting her answer, he said, "Want me to go?" 

"No," she answered truthfully. She didn't.

Rebecca looked over the ledge, staring into relative darkness. When she panned her gaze back to him, he was still looking at her.

"Rupert is here," she blurted out.

His mouth did a side twitch. 

"He said something to you?"

"Yes." She nodded and kept on nodding to herself as she looked down at her foot and scuffed a heel slowly on the ground. "And here I am, hiding outside like an utter coward."

"Hey," he said. "Don't talk about my friend that way."

She mustered up a smile in response, but the will to keep her facial muscles in that position deserted her after a couple of seconds. 

"It's so _easy_ for him. To completely get me like this. I just want to—"Rebecca was unsure of exactly _what_ to mime "—to him." She shook her shoulders as if she was trying to shake her lack of composure out of her. 

"This was supposed to be what the divorce was putting a stopper on. You know, I plastered the papers up on the fridge as proof that my life was free from his relentlessness." She let out a self-mocking huff. "This is all on me, getting involved with the club. Rupert's got to know it was a way to take from him…"

It was different, now. She just wanted to do her job, do it well, and do it without Rupert's lingering legacy. 

"He's always going to keep showing up to these things and—as long as I'm here, I'm always just going to have to deal with it."

Seeing the empathy he held in his eyes, Rebecca regretted dumping all of this out at him. He should've been free to enjoy the night without her imposing anything weighty upon him.

"Better get back to it," she said. Not waiting for a reply, Rebecca pivoted, stepped towards the exit, and pulled the handle. 

She recoiled back a step; the door hadn't moved. She reached out and jiggled the handle. "Are you—" she spluttered "—kidding me?!"

"It kinda does that sometimes," he said.

"What?!"

"Yeah, so, I think you might’ve kicked the door stopper out of the way when you got up here." She opened her mouth but he rushed on before she could get in any words of self-deprecation. "No biggie! We can call someone to come open it for us.“

Realizing that she had no pocket to reach into, she said, "My mobile's down in my coat."

After getting his device out and tapping a few times on the screen, he said, "Dang, well that's _not_ so Raven. Looks like that call really ran down my battery." He flipped the device around to show her a spinning wheel of doom dissipating into a black screen.

Rebecca frowned. They had no way to phone for help now. As she tried to rack her brain for a solution, a faint uproar emerged, coming from downstairs. Rebecca peeked at her wristwatch to confirm what she already knew. It was midnight. 

Ted lit up. "Happy New Year!"

Rebecca echoed the words, trying to hit a typical her-to-him energy level. 

"Can't say I've ever rung one in before like _this_ , but I'm sure—"

BOOM.

"Shit!"

"What the flying ham sandwich!"

They both whirled around towards the direction of the apocalyptic sound.

It was fireworks; they seemed to originate from the town's largest common.

Ted laughed with delight. "Did you know _this_ was on the menu for tonight?"

She shook her head. "No, I really didn't." 

Once her heart rate had slowed to a normal speed, she started processing what she was seeing. Pink hearts glowed and faded and yellow smiley faces appeared upside-down.

After a minute of silent observance, Rebecca stepped forward, grounded her elbows on the concrete ledge in front of her, and rested her chin atop her clasped hands. Ted followed suit. 

There was a diffusion of the negative emotions that had overtaken her; they weren't so concentrated directly behind her eyes. Maybe, in the midst of a rampage, one needs their hardwire to be reset. If it's explosives that do the trick, then so be it…

Ted took a sideways step towards her and nudged her upper arm with his shoulder. "We're the only ones at this shindig who are seeing this," he said.

It was true, wasn't it? All the _normal_ goers-of-the-party were safely indoors. 

She actively put the question of how they would get down to the back of her mind, at least until the show was over.

Rebecca breathed in, long and deep. Upon breathing out, her arm again touched his. She was acutely aware of it.

Up until then, it was routine for her to resist the urge to be physically close to him. This time, she stayed put; she didn't inch away to reclaim personal space. 

In the gaps between the crackles, thoughts both obtuse and specific meshed and clashed within her consciousness. She wanted to tell him about some of them, the ones she could translate into words.

At some point, a breeze had started up. Chilly as it had become, the air on her face felt refreshing. 

Rebecca tilted her head a little, angled towards him—

Straightened it back—

Then decided to stop being such a milksop and leaned her head against his. With care. 

She felt Ted wrap his arm around her shoulders and pulled her in, a little. 

"It's been…" he started to say. He let a couple of BOOMs to assert their dominance before continuing. "It's been one crazy year."

She managed a "Hear, hear" in response.

"Pretty wild, everything that's gone down. I mean—" with his free hand, he gestured out at the world around them. "I moved somewhere that ain't got no Dairy Queen blizzard ice cream."

Her head jolted back up. "That's your main takeaway?"

"Before they hand it over to you, they hold the cup upside-down without anything falling out. It's one of life's major delights." 

"Alright," she laughed, fond and flummoxed.

Adding onto the list, he said, "I get to coach the greatest team on the planet."

There it was. Heartfelt Lasso.

By now, Rebecca knew that it didn't precisely matter which players were dealt out to him; he'd always arrange that mishmash of personalities into something fantastic. If they had a great team, it was because he both sowed and tended to it. 

Blue, red, and yellow lit up all at once before them.

"I've met so many incredible human beings," he continued.

Flits of golden white caught her eye, buzzing, out in someone's back garden or on an empty road. Explosives were littering the sky, yet people had the audacity to ignore it and produce something of their own. Perhaps she understood.

"I got to know a Ms. Rebecca Welton."

Her breath caught. His words felt like something of a precursor to precipice.

"That's been a real highlight."

She shifted and leaned back a little to look at him properly. 

Ted drew back his hand from her shoulder and took a step back, relinquishing the physical contact. 

"And. Um. You… When I came here—it's, now, the way it—"He twitched his nose. "I'm trying to say something to you here, but the words, they're… coming out all stilted." She noticed him wipe a hand on his side of his leg. 

His head was haloed by a burst of blue. 

"Then don't say it with words," she said, unsure if she was even speaking loud enough for him to hear. 

Ted looked down, to find her hands, to take them into his.

When he looked back up at her, his eyes were filled with such a wealth of emotion that it was nearly unmanageable. She didn’t know when breathing had become a banned activity but she certainly wasn’t doing it anymore.

Rebecca took half a step forward. Then leaned in and met his lips with her own.

Ted drew his arms around her, tight. Her mouth was fervent against his, her hands were cradling the back of his head, her legs were unsteady. 

When the fireworks had their grand finale, her eyes were closed.

"You're really good at that," he said when they broke apart, a good while later. She held onto his shoulders to keep herself oriented and ducked her head as she smiled.

Somewhere, far away, an upset dog was barking.

Lovedrunk as she was, their present came back into focus, and there was still the question of:

"So, any ideas on the whole getting back down to earth thing?"

"Almost forgot about that whole predicament," he said, with a massive sated smile. 

Rebecca took her hands off him to turn towards the door. As much as she wanted to continue to kiss him senseless, it _was_ the winter, and the wind was picking up. She was glad she hadn't gone for something idiotic like a backless dress, or she might have morphed into an actual block of ice.

"Goodness, now _that's_ cold," Ted said as a fresh gust came along. He was wearing a fairly insulated jumper, but it could only offer so much warmth. "If we just start yelling, you think someone will hear us?" he asked, rubbing his arms.

A tidal wave of wind ripped through the air.

Rebecca started to laugh. In between outbursts of giggles, she got out a "We're going to die up here," as if Death By Roof was the funniest possible way to go.

She composed herself with a strong "Right," then continued, saying, "This is the complete opposite side of the complex from the entrance they're using for the party. If we _were_ to start... shouting, anybody heading home would probably think there's just drunk people somewhere on the proper—."

Rebecca suddenly spotted movement down below. "Hang on, is there…" She was most definitely seeing a human being walking down below. "There's someone there?" 

Ted clamored to look as well. "Why, I'd know the top of that head anywhere. Roy!" he called out.

Roy had headphones on and was apparently walloping his ears with music because he just kept on walking.

"Christ, they're right about auditory damage these days—ROY!" she roared.

Ted put a hand over his ear. "Ow. But also, wow."

Roy looked around, and Ted waved. Upon spotting him, Roy did a double-take and took off his headphones. 

"Lasso?! What the hell are you doing up there?"

"What are you doing down there?" said Ted.

"Walking home!" 

"We're locked out up here!" said Rebeca, getting to the point. 

"We need someone to open the door for us! Could you call someone to help us out?" asked Ted.

"I'll do it," said Roy, with the vocal equivalent of an eye roll. He started walking back towards them.

Rebecca provided instructions on how to find them so that Roy wasn't about to end up lost in the building. "Got it," Roy acknowledged. He slipped just out of their sightline, called out a "The fucking building is locked," then immediately followed up with a "never-mind."

"He's here, he's there, he's coming up the stair," Ted sang. He then attached an "s" to the end of the last word, breaking the rhyme. "Because there's multiple of them. Not just one."

"What on earth was he doing, walking that way?" asked Rebecca. 

"It's like a labyrinth, trying to get back to civilization in that direction," said Ted.

"He wasn't even wearing a coat."

"When Keeley's not around, he really does make decisions that are…"

"Questionable?" she provided.

"Unique." He wrapped his arms around her, saying, "Speaking of coats…"

“Oh, am I being classified as a coat now?” she said, amused. 

“A really nice one,” he mumbled.

She held him back, tightly.

After a few minutes, the door opened with a bang, signifying Roy's entrance upon the scene. She promptly jumped away from Ted. 

"Oh my god, thank you," she said as she hurried over as Roy held the door open.

"How did I never know that this was here?" asked Roy.

Rebecca smiled. "Probably because nobody's supposed to be up here." As she descended the stairs as quickly as she could without falling, she heard Ted and Roy murmuring about something before they followed.

She was thrilled to be back in a heated environment

With everyone back inside, Roy took the lead, making a beeline for the exit. He put his hand up as a means of saying goodbye, and took his leave.

The two of them were alone again, save for the sound of the music leaking out into the corridor. "I think I've spoken to everybody that I needed to interact with tonight,” said Rebecca. She really had gone through most existing emotions over the course of the night.

“You heading out, then?” he asked.

“I think so…” said Rebecca. She then remembered what she had to show him. “Oh!” She held up her index finger, indicating for him to wait a moment. Reaching into her cleavage, she pulled out the check she had been handed earlier, and held it out so that he could read the handwritten numerical value on it.

Ted whistled theatrically.

“It hasn’t all been bad, tonight,” she said.

He feigned ignorance, saying “No?” and badly suppressing a grin.

“No,” she said, going for flirtatious in her delivery.

After a moment of simply taking each other in, she reached up to fiddle with her earlobe and asked, “Would you like to leave? With me? You don’t h—”

“Yeah,” he breathed. “If you want to.”

“I do." She put her hand on his forearm. “I’m going to slip out, call a ride. You take your time,” she said, knowing he’d probably want to give everyone a one-on-one sweeping sentimental goodbye.

After leaving unnoticed and grabbing her belongings, she waited outside. Two young ladies exited the building, stumbling like baby Bambis, clutching each other, dragging one another down. They were utterly joyous.

In recent years, Rebecca had developed an aversion to a lot of things, this holiday one of them. It was due for a reassessment; it really didn’t hurt, being gifted a fresh slate. 

It hit her that this would become her first full calendar year with _her_ name back. Née Welton, born-again Welton.

Upon pulling out her mobile, she instantly understood what had transpired between Ted and Roy when she was out of earshot. Messages from Keeley littered the screen, starting off with a short, yet textually emotive: _TELL. ME. EVERYTHING._

Hearing the entrance door open and close, she looked up. Ted stepped out and smiled at her, toothily. It made her want to step into the road and do emboîté turns.

She looked back down and quickly typed back a semicolon and a right parenthesis, then put her device back into her pocketbook. It was going to kill Keeley to wait for _deets_ , but she'd put it off until tomorrow. Tonight was for living.

When she spotted the taxi approaching, she said, “I just remembered; last year, I banned Higgins from having any alcohol so that he would be my designated driver." She cringed, but she was far enough away from it to poke fun of past misdeeds.

"Well, I think he's compensated for it this year.”

“What do you mean?”

“That man is up there dancing. And when I say 'dancing,' I mean _dancing_." 

She laughed and ushered him inside the car. 

In the end, Ted was wrong, in terms of correctly predicting his sleep schedule for the night. Hours later, they were both very much still awake. 

**Author's Note:**

> 2021 Delusional Girl Year: when i started writing this at like 1am on january 1st, i REALLY thought i this was gonna be 600 words long and that i’d finish it same-day like omg it is actual weeks later
> 
> catch me yelling 24/7 abt ted lasso [here](https://freetobegrace.tumblr.com/) on tumblr
> 
> do drop a comment if u enjoyed xo


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